Valentino Garavani, the legendary Italian couturier whose work defined modern glamour, died Monday, January 19, at age 93. His legacy—long associated with romance, refinement, and fantasy—also holds particular meaning within Black fashion history. In an industry that has historically excluded Black people from its most rarefied spaces, Valentino made room for Black women to be seen, styled, and celebrated at the highest level.
Garavani opened his house in 1960, and across a career spanning more than five decades, built a fashion empire defined by elegance. From flowing silks and ornate brocades to the unmistakable power of his signature Valentino Red, his designs embodied confidence and fantasy. That fantasy mattered, particularly for Black women who were rarely centered in fashion’s most elite spaces.
Black women were central to that vision. Cultural icons like Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry trusted Valentino, turning to him for moments that demanded presence like career-defining red carpet appearances. These were not isolated moments of visibility, but part of a sustained relationship between the designer and Black audiences.
On the runway, Valentino’s commitment was equally clear. At a time before diversity in fashion was a talking point, he cast Black models not as exceptions but as embodiments of his ideal. Pat Cleveland, Iman, Alva Chinn, and Katoucha Niane walked his shows early on; later, Alek Wek and Naomi Campbell helped redefine high-fashion beauty through his lens. That ethos endured beyond Garavani’s 2007 retirement, carried forward under Pierpaolo Piccioli and realized in the Spring/Summer 2019 Couture show, which featured a historic majority of Black models, with Adult Akech opening and Naomi Campbell closing.
Valentino’s connection to Black audiences was perhaps most powerfully reflected in the pages of EBONY. Mrs. Eunice Johnson, founder of EBONY Fashion Fair, embraced his refined Italian savoir-faire, featuring his designs on runways across the country and in the magazine’s editorials —placing European luxury directly in conversation with Black life and aspiration. In doing so, Valentino affirmed a radical truth: luxury, beauty, and escapism belong to us, too.
Though his hand had been absent from the brand for some time, it’s no surprise that stars like Zendaya, Viola Davis, and Colman Domingo still feel a connection to it. The house’s enduring ethos, simply a desire to bring beauty into the world, continues to live on
As the fashion community reflects on Valentino Garavani’s life and work, below we revisit some of his most iconic red carpet moments, alongside a retrospective of his designs as seen through EBONY’s pages across the decades.